


Moving Forward

by IreneADonovan



Series: Sleeplessness [2]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Charles in a Wheelchai, M/M, Post-XMFC AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-30 05:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15090296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneADonovan/pseuds/IreneADonovan
Summary: Sequel to my drabble series, Sleepless. Post-XMFC AU. Erik returns while Charles is still in the hospital.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is actually complete, but the individual drabbles will appear on tumblr, one per day, the day before I post them here...

Erik woke as he'd fallen asleep, spooned against Charles. Soft light streamed in through the window, and he realized he'd slept for hours.

He kissed Charles' neck, and his arm tightened a little around Charles' torso. Charles made a happy sound but didn't truly wake.

So much lay between them. Reconciling their love for each other with their opposing viewpoints on how to deal with humanity and how best to protect their own. Navigating the treacherous waters of loving another man in a world that called their love a crime. The ramifications of Charles' injury.

But now they had time.


	2. Chapter 2

Charles awoke content and rested. Erik's chest was warm and solid against his back, and Erik's face was pressed against his shoulder. He hated to have to wake him, but the harsh realities of his current situation dictated that he couldn't keep the outside world at bay much longer.

There would need to be some hard conversations in the near future. They remained diametrically opposed on so many levels that forging a middle ground would be difficult. But they had to find a way. They simply had to.

Neither one of them could live in a world without the other.


	3. Chapter 3

“Erik?”

“Yeah?” Erik sounded surprisingly awake.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For staying this time.”

“Why wouldn't I?” Erik sounded genuinely puzzled.

“A lot has changed.” Fuck but Charles didn't want to have this conversation. Not now. Maybe not ever.

“Nothing that matters.” Erik nuzzled Charles' neck.

“Are you sure of that?” Wish I was. Charles took Erik's hand, dragged it down to his unfeeling thigh.

“I'm not going anywhere,” Erik insisted. “Whatever you need, I'll be here for you.”

Charles knew it wouldn't be that easy. But he had hope.


	4. Chapter 4

“Do you want me to tell Raven?”

Charles hesitated. “I don't want her coming back out of guilt.”

“She won't.” Erik brushed a lock of hair from Charles' face. “She really should know.”

“Tell her, and that I'd like to see her.” Those blue eyes regarded him. “So when are you leaving?”

“Now. But I'll be back tonight.”

“I know. I'll still miss you.”

Erik brushed a kiss across Charles' lush lips.

Charles' hands gripped his shoulders, held him close as he deepened the kiss.

Erik drank in Charles, a thirsty man leaving the oasis.


	5. Chapter 5

'I saw Charles last night.”

Mystique's golden eyes widened. “H-how is he?”

“He misses you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That's not what I meant.”

Erik looked away, unwilling to say the truth he knew. Saying it made it too real.

“Erik? Erik?” Suspicious, then worried. “Tell me what's wrong. Tell me what happened to my brother.”

“He's paralyzed,” Erik whispered. “From the waist down.”

Those golden eyes went wide with horror. “The bullet?”

Erik nodded.

“Is it permanent?”

Erik nodded again.

“Take me to him.”

“I'm going back tonight.”

“No. Now.”

“I'll find Azazel.”


	6. Chapter 6

Raven hesitated outside Charles' hospital-room door. She wanted to see him, needed to see him, was terrified of seeing him.

Erik said he wanted to see her, but she still feared his reaction. She'd left him shot, bleeding, _paralyzed_. He should hate her. She hated herself now for leaving, for being so blinded by anger and resentment that she'd walked away, not bothering to recognize how serious his injury was.

Tears welled in her eyes, and she dashed them away, willed them not to return. She took a deep breath, exhaled, stilled her mind, stepped through the doorway.

“Charles?”


	7. Chapter 7

Her brother was reclining in bed, nose buried in a book. He looked much as he always had, the changes subtle yet undeniable. New lines around his eyes, the vestiges of baby fat melted from his cheeks and jaw, dark hair disarrayed and in need of a trim. He looked older, worn-down, world-weary.

“Charles?”

He glanced up, and she could see pain reflected in his sapphire eyes, for an instant, before it was pushed aside. “Raven. You came.”

She smiled, and for a moment it was like it had always been between them. “Of course I came, you idiot.”


	8. Chapter 8

“I don't want your pity.” Charles' eyes were gem-hard.

Raven nodded. “You won't have it. Just a dose of concern. How are you, really?”

“Been better.” He patted the bed. “Come. Sit.”

She sat gingerly beside his thigh, took his hands. “Talk to me,” she said.

“What's there to say?” He no longer met her gaze. “I'm paralyzed, Raven. That bullet shattered my spine. Erik got to walk away. So did you. Me, I'm never going to walk again.”

“I know.” She squeezed his hands.

“Do you? Do you really?” A bitter, almost hysterical laugh.


	9. Chapter 9

“You don't know, you can't possibly know.” Charles' voice grew savage.

“Then show me.” She scarcely believed the words she was saying.

Neither did Charles. “You want me in your mind?”

“No. Do it anyway.”

Images assaulted her, woven together by pain and bitter tears. The agonizing journey to Miami and safety. Waking from surgery, his lower back still aflame, his lower body still numb. The prognosis that stripped away hope. The ache of loss -- his legs, Raven, Erik. Erik.

The images halted, leaving her reeling. She yanked her hands free and stumbled to her feet.


	10. Chapter 10

Tears streaked the cheeks of her peaches-and-cream guise. “God, Charles, can you ever forgive me?”

He extended a hand, and after a moment, she took it. “Can you forgive me for being such a clueless idiot?”

“You've always been clueless.” A smile, soft and tentative.

“I only wanted to keep you safe.”

“Life isn't about being safe.” Her words, though gentle, still stung, full of a truth he hadn't understood.

“It seems I had to learn that the hard way.” Charles grimaced as a fresh wave of pain rippled through his back.

“We all do.”


	11. Chapter 11

Raven squeezed his hand, watching him with worried eyes. “Do you need the doctor?”

He shook his head. “It's nothing.” It wasn't, of course. His back felt like it had been flayed open, torn flesh, shattered bone, severed nerves, all in cacophonous symphony. But there was nothing she could do. Nothing he could do. Nothing anyone could do.

“How long will you have to be here?”

He sighed. “I don't know yet. They want to send me to a rehabilitation facility, but all I really want is to go home, get away from all the minds, all the pain.”


	12. Chapter 12

Raven chewed her lip for a moment. “Could you do it at the mansion? You could certainly afford whatever renovations and whatever staff you needed.”

“I've considered it, but it's just not feasible, even with a virtually unlimited budget.” He sighed. “Better to concentrate on the renovations necessary for when I'm actually ready to come home. I'll muddle through the psychic noise until then.”

Raven smiled, squeezed his hand. “Let me know what you need.”

“Just my sister. And my friend.”

“I'm not who I was,” she warned.

He kissed her knuckles. “I know. Neither am I.”


	13. Chapter 13

Raven stayed until Erik returned, somewhere near evening. Their truce remained tentative, the hurts on both sides fresh and near the surface, but Charles hoped they could forge a new relationship from the ashes of the old.

Could he and Erik do the same? The base of their relationship was far more tenuous, built on no more weeks of knowledge than he and Raven had years, a bond born of passion and proximity and (Charles had thought) common goals.

And then Erik had left, anger trumping love, leaving Charles behind like a broken plaything.

Only to return now, offering rapprochement.


	14. Chapter 14

Erik returned with Azazel in a puff of sulfurous smoke. Both looked stern, forbidding, then Erik smiled, his countenance softening as his eyes lit on Charles. What Charles didn't expect was for Azazel's expression to soften similarly as he caught sight of Raven.

“Ready?” Azazel asked, extending his hand.

Raven didn't take it immediately, though she smiled in return. She squeezed Charles' hand, pressed it to her lips. “I'll be back soon.”

“Looking forward to it.”

She rose, clasped Azazel's hand. Just before they vanished, Raven reverted to her true form, mutant, blue and proud. And unfortunately naked.


	15. Chapter 15

Charles reached for Erik, who closed the distance between them, folded Charles' hand into both his own. “I missed you today,” Erik said.

“And I, you.” Charles patted the space beside his hip. “Come sit.”

Erik sat gingerly.

“I won't break.”

“You already have.”

“Done is done, love.”

Erik's pale eyes searched Charles' face. “How are you not angry?”

Charles sighed. “I am angry, my friend, angrier than I would have once believed possible.”

“You don't look angry.”

Charles let his head and shoulders sag back against the mattress. “I simply don't have the strength.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Explain.” To most, Erik would have sounded demanding, but Charles could both hear and feel the underlying concern.

“My body is still healing,” he began, “and most of my body's resources are going to repairing the damage. I just don't have the strength right now for more than the occasional short burst of anger.” A wry smile. “I suspect that will change, so you'd best be prepared. If you stick around, I daresay you'll bear the brunt.”

“If?”

Charles said nothing.

“I suppose I deserved that.”

“Damned right.”

“Okay, but I'm still not leaving.”


	17. Chapter 17

Erik studied Charles, the bruise-dark circles under his eyes, the hollows in his cheeks, those crimson lips set tight against pain. He had done this, and he could not forgive himself as readily as Charles had forgiven him. No, this he would be atoning for for the rest of his life. “Whatever you need. I'm not going anywhere.”

Charles closed his eyes for a moment. “Are you sure? Really sure? This won't be an easy road, and according to Raven, I can be quite the bastard.”

“Stop trying to scare me off, Charles. I'm not leaving you, ever again.”


	18. Chapter 18

“So where _do_ we go from here?” Erik asked. “Do you know how much longer you'll need to be here?”

Charles shook his head. “But I won't be going home, not right away.”

“No?”

“No. They say I need to go to a rehabilitation facility, learn how to deal with all of this.”

“All of this,” Erik repeated. Charles could see him wanting to start the self-castigation again.

“Stop brooding and hold me. I've been waiting all day.”

Erik helped Charles onto his side, eased in behind him, held him close. “How's this?”

“Perfect.”


	19. Chapter 19

Charles woke to darkness and pain, adrenaline spiking before memory and awareness seeped in. It always took him a minute to remember what he'd tried to forget. A Cuban beach. A bullet. Losing his legs. Being left alone.

Except, this time, he wasn't alone. A warm arm circled his chest, solid and real, not the dreams of a lonely mind and an aching heart.

Erik's breath, warm against the nape of his neck, his chest, a solid presence along his back.

The future remained uncertain, but now, maybe, his dreams were back within reach, with Erik at his side again.


End file.
